In a known system, multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses can connect respective short-range wireless communication links to a single short-range wireless communication apparatus (also referred to as communication destination apparatus). The short-range wireless communication is, for example, Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication. For such a system, see JP 2010-68406A1 corresponding to U.S. 2010/0070637A1.
In this relation, the inventor of the present application has found out the following.
In the system in which multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses can connect respective short-range wireless communication links to a single communication destination apparatus, if, for instance, the multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses simultaneously change from a power-off state to a power-on state and simultaneously send a communication protocol connection request (communication protocol may be a profile in Bluetooth communication) to the communication destination apparatus, a connection process of connecting one communication protocol between one of the short-range wireless communication apparatuses and the communication destination apparatus conflicts with a connection process of connecting another communication protocol between another one of the short-range wireless communication apparatuses and the communication destination apparatus. If such a connection process confliction occurs, all the communication protocol connection requests sent from the multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses may be rejected by the communication destination apparatus. In this case, none of the multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses can connect a communication protocol to the communication destination apparatus.
If the multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses simultaneously change from the power-on state to the power-off state in a state where a communication protocol is connected between any one of multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses and the communication destination apparatus, the following situation can arise. A first short-range wireless communication apparatus (a first one of the multiple short-range wireless communication apparatuses) sends a request to connect a first communication protocol to the communication destination apparatus before the completion of a disconnection process of disconnecting a second communication protocol between a second short-range wireless communication apparatus and the communication destination apparatus. In this case, a connection process of connecting the first communication protocol between the first short-range wireless communication apparatus and the communication destination apparatus conflicts with the disconnection process of disconnecting the second communication protocol between the second short-range wireless communication apparatus and the communication destination apparatus. If such a conflict occurs between the connection process and the disconnection process, the request to connect the first communication protocol, which is sent from the first short-range wireless communication apparatus, may be rejected by the communication destination apparatus. In this case, the first short-range wireless communication apparatus cannot connect the communication protocol to the communication destination apparatus.